HOW TO SPOT AN ADICT

HOW TO SPOT AN ADICT

It’s rather simple really: you need to look for people with a passion for music, a love of the club lifestyle and an undying motivation to improve the dance music scene in Australia.

One such group of people is the Brisbane-based promotions company the ADICTS (the name is an acronym of the names of the group’s members). The four constantans and two vowels are known for their individual DJ adventures, but most importantly for their combined efforts in drawing mass crowds to their resident club night Breaks & Enter at the GPO Hotel in Brisbane.

Destination?’s fourth birthday bash at Ambar Friday the 9th saw two of the ADICTS crew members, Chris Verner (the “C”) and Devastation Dave (the “D”), play some chunky beats, a sound experience inadvertently described by some as nothing short of a musical orgasm.

Mia and Emira caught up with them to find out what they’re all about, what they thought of their first experience in Perth- and, last but not least, whether they’ll be back to wet some more panties any time soon.

TELL US A BIT ABOUT ADICTS, HOW DID YOU START UP SUCH A SUCCESSFUL AGENCY?

(Chris): Well me and Dave were kinda sick of playing in shitty venues, playing top 40 dance music, so we thought how can we go to the next step and work out something bigger and better and we had a fair few friends that were really big in the DJ scene so one day at work we decided to put on a club night and it came together. It was a really successful night and there was no looking back from then on.

(Dave): We went to do a second gig at the same venue and the owner was approached by 2 other promo companies like ourselves, and he suggested we put all our powers together like captain planet and form this huge group, and it was even more successful than the first night. So from then on one of the guys from the other promo groups joined us and ADICTS was born.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR MUSICAL GENRE?

(Dave): Well our club night is called Breaks and Enter, and it is mainly a breaks night but we have had artists that have come in and played a lot of 4/4 and electro type tunes. I guess our music is breaks, but we do cross over to other music types.

(Chris): As a group we all DJ’d different genres, from the 4 of us it was breaks, electro, house, deep house and hip-hop. And really with our club night Breaks and Enter, we just saw in the market that there was an opportunity to do big things with break beat because there was no competition. As individuals we are pretty diverse and we cross over. Now touring as ADICTS, it’s not all breaks, anything that’s fat and chunky we’ll throw it in.

IF YOU COULD COMBINE WITH ANY OTHER ARTIST WHO WOULD IT BE? (AIM HIGH, GO FOR AN INTERNATIONAL NAME)

(Chris): I like Booka Shade.

(Dave): It’s a tough question when put on the spot! Trentemoller, Vandal, David Ekenback , those guys that are trying to break through, they are really cool. We like people who are trying to pave their own path, not following the mainstream commercial sound.

SO LET’S CUT TO WHAT REALLY MATTERS- WHAT DID YOU THINK OF PERTH? APART FROM YOUR EXPERIENCE ON THE FIRST DAY! (THE GUYS’ CAMPERVAN WAS BROKEN INTO AT KINGS PARK AND ALL THEIR POSESSIONS TAKEN- CLOTHES, MUSIC AND THE LIKE…)

(Chris): I love Perth. I’ve heard so much good stuff about it, even if I wasn’t DJ’ing I’d still come here. Obviously the women are known to be very good looking, but it’s also the atmosphere, the beach and the sun. Also, WA is known for some of the big acts that have pioneered form here like Pendulum and some big bands as well. The music scene has always been a big thing here.

(Dave): The hospitality has been awesome too. Especially the guys from the Destination? crew, Pete and Mark have really shown us a great time. Being on their turf we’ve seen the hard yards that they put in, and we’ve come leaps and bounds from where we first started as an agency, but these guys are really switched on to what they’re doing and they’re doing it for all the right reasons- they’re passionate about the music.

SO YOU GUYS ARE IN LOVE WITH US, BUT YOU ALSO PLAYED IN BUNBURY- HOW WAS THAT?

(Dave): We heard some really weird stuff about the club we played in- when I tried getting people to come and watch us play at Odyssey, they were like “nah man, I don’t wanna get shot”. And I was like “what”? Apparently someone got shot there 2 years ago. So I think it’s got a bit of a bad name behind it but it’s a massive club with a huge screen behind the DJ box with a silhouette of a chick dancing, and a pristine sound.

(Chris): In short, Bunbury is a small town, but this was an amazing club, it’s up there with some of the best clubs we have back home (in Brisbane), but like Dave said, it’s just got a bad name behind it.

OKAY SO AT LAST COUNT, HOW MANY TIMES DID YOU GUYS VOMIT WHILE YOU WERE HERE?

(Chris): Um, twice in the toilet. But don’t forget Dave! He also vomited!

(Dave): If word got out about this it’d bring much shame to my family name (Dave’s Polish- they’re known for tough livers). But…I vomited for the first time in 2 years in Bunbury. It would’ve had to have been the 2 warm Jager shots in a row; I think that’s what did it! But we did play some drinking games before that and were well toasted before we even got to the club!

SO YOU GUYS APPROVE OF OUR MUSIC SCENE HERE, AND YOU’LL BE BACK?

(Chris): Yea it’s all good- just remember to lock your cars!

Make sure to check out the next “summer vibes” Destination? Xmas party at Ambar on the 21/12/07 featuring the local sounds of the Signal Drivers, Karl Sav and more!